Ideal tools to help young people with their career choice

Remember back in the day when you completed an online ‘test’ at school to help you identify your ideal job. Most people I know have disparaging reflections of such questionnaires. I’ve often heard people say, ‘it told me I should become a Vicar’.

These days, psychometric assessments are much more sophisticated and can be very useful to help young people (and adults) with their career decisions.

If you have a son or daughter in school and they appear to be drifting and lacking direction, a good quality psychometric assessment can help to get the ball rolling. The good thing about them is that they are not tests, they are assessments. They measure potential, not academic ability - meaning that it’s not something you can perform badly in. In fact the whole point is to identify personality, strengths and aptitudes in addition to suggesting possible career paths. In so doing, they can help to boost confidence and motivation.

Here are 12 questions that a good psychometric assessment can help a teenager to answer…

1. Am I more suited to an apprenticeship or further/higher education?

2. Am I a ‘big picture’ person or am I more interested in knowing how things work or fit together?

3. How well do I cope with change?

4. How confident am I in expressing my opinion to others?

5. Do I prefer to finish one task before moving on to another or am I happy to juggle?

6. Why am I very capable and intelligent yet find it difficult to engage in school?

7. Would I prefer a job where you are dealing mainly with people, information or things?

8. Would I prefer to lead or be led?

9. Do I have the right qualities to be an entrepreneur?

10. Would I prefer to work in a large or small organisation?

11. Based on my profile, what jobs are worth investigating further?

12. What courses would I be interested in studying at a higher level?

About the author

Mark Anderson is a career coach who works one-to-one with adults and young people to help them find their purpose and decide on the right career path for them.